Russian Soyuz Rocket Launch: Multi-Satellite Mission | Vostochny Cosmodrome

Russian Soyuz Rocket Launch: Multi-Satellite Mission | Vostochny Cosmodrome

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a number of satellites launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome facility outside the city of Uglegorsk, in Russia's far eastern region of Amur on Dec. 28, 2025.

A Russian Soyuz-2-1b/Fregat rocket delivered a pair of Aist-2T Earth Observation satellites and 50 ridesharing payloads, including a trio of Iranian-made satellites.

The dual-purpose Aist-2T satellite with a mass of 670 kilograms, was developed at RKTs Progress in Samara under a 2019 contract with the Roskosmos State Corporation that ordered a two-spacecraft system producing stereo-imaging of the Earth surface from a Sun-synchronous orbit. The Aist-2T satellite was reported to be capable of capturing images with a resolution as high as 1.6 meters, when photographing in nadir (directly below its flight path) in pan-chromatic mode. In the same imaging mode, it could also produce stereo images with a resolution up to 1.9 meters. Multi-spectral and color imagery was reported to be possible with a resolution of 4.8 meters when pointing in nadir or up to 5.9 meters for stereo sets of photos.

The Aist-2T variant also featured a built-in propulsion system for the first time, while the satellite's downlink channel for sending imaging data back to Earth was expanded from 150 megabits per second on Aist-2D to 1,600 megabits per second on the 2T version.

Iranian media identified the satellites as Paya, also known as Tolou-3, Zafar-2, and a prototype satellite called Kowsar-1.5. 

Paya (Tolou-3), built by the Iranian Space Agency, is Iran’s heaviest Earth-observation satellite to date, weighing about 150 kilograms.

Iranian officials say it is capable of producing black-and-white images with a resolution of about five meters and color images with a resolution of around 10 meters, and is intended for applications including agriculture, water management, environmental monitoring and disaster assessment.

Zafar-2, developed by Iran University of Science and Technology, is also an Earth-observation satellite designed for mapping, environmental monitoring and tracking natural hazards.

Kowsar-1.5 combines imaging and internet-of-things capabilities and is aimed primarily at agricultural and farm-monitoring uses, Iranian officials say.

The Vostochny Cosmodrome is a Russian space launch facility in the Amur Oblast, located above the 51st parallel north in the Russian Far East. It was built to help reduce Russia’s reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome located on land the Russian government leases from Kazakhstan. The civilian launch facility is operated by Roscosmos, the state corporation responsible for space flights. The facility was established in August 2011 and saw its first launch on April 28, 2016.

Video Credit: Rocosmos

Duration: 7 minutes
Release Date: Dec. 28, 2025

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